Black market kidney trade in Vietnam

To meet people's need for organ transplants, a group of people have defied the law to organize, broker, and connect supply and demand to earn a large profit difference.

Organ trafficking in Vietnam: 150 million VND/kidney

In fact, if we dig deeper, we will see that there are many tricks behind it and the amount of money spent on brokers is up to hundreds of millions of dong. So is there a market for human organ trafficking in Vietnam or not? Is it true that the authorities are completely "helpless" in the face of the rampant "brokers"?!

According to the provisions of the Law on Donation, Collection and Transplantation of Human Organs and Donation and Collection of Cadavers, only citizens who are 18 years of age or older, have full civil capacity, voluntarily donate, are biologically compatible and donating organs does not affect their health too much can be approved by the authorities to perform transplantation.

To properly implement the above regulations, the list of people in need of organ transplants is increasing while the number of donors is decreasing. So that difference is becoming a fertile ground for "brokers" to operate.

Waiting for life...

Until now, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam (31 years old, living in Tam Dao, Vinh Phuc) still has not recovered when thinking about himself. Due to stomach pain, he had to spend a lot of time and money to buy medicine to completely cure the disease.

However, the joy was short-lived when, after a medical examination, the doctors said that Mr. Tam had acute kidney failure. His body had symptoms of edema... if not treated promptly, it would be very dangerous to his health and life.

During two years of continuous treatment and dialysis at the 108 hospital, his health was maintained, which meant that the money and assets in the family gradually disappeared. Although his health was maintained, it could not last long, so he had to find a kidney replacement.

The area in front of the hospital gate is often where the activities of "brokers" and guests take place.

Mr. Tam said, the first people who wanted to donate a kidney were my parents, but they were both old (over 70 years old) and weak, so they were not healthy enough to donate.

In addition, I also have 2 older siblings who registered to donate to my sister, but they are all weak, they are sick today and sick tomorrow, so if we take away a kidney and they are not in good health, the crime will be even worse because each of them still has a heavy family burden, their children are not yet grown up, so as a younger sibling, I think it is impossible to bear it.

In desperation, family members ran everywhere, registering at one hospital after another to wait for a kidney donor, but until now, after searching tirelessly, they still have not found one.

"Recently, my brother was hanging around a hospital in Hanoi and accidentally met a man from Ha Nam who confided that due to difficult family circumstances, he wanted to sell his kidney to earn some money to return home to pay off his debts.

Seeing that, my brother asked for the contact number and made an appointment for someone to come and do the necessary procedures to perform the transplant. However, after doing the tests according to the regulations of the health sector, everything was in order, but when he returned to the locality to ask for confirmation of the names of the donor and recipient, no one dared to come forward to certify them because the donor and recipient were not related by blood, and if he did it intentionally, it would violate the provisions of the law. I thought I was saved, but who would have thought that the provisions of the law were like that, so I had to wait until there was a legal donor and the hospitals had registered to call the names before I could do it," Mr. Tam emphasized.

Similarly, Ms. Tran Thanh Nga (from Thach That, Hanoi) said, more than a year ago, I felt my body was always weak and my blood pressure was high. Worried about my health, I went to the hospital for a check-up and the doctors told me that I had stage 4 kidney failure. Although I was prescribed medication and given a list of foods to avoid, my health continued to deteriorate.

During my recent re-examination, the doctors at Thach That Hospital confirmed that we needed to find a replacement kidney. If we didn’t do it soon, it would have a major impact on my life. Since my family was short of people and no one was healthy enough to donate a kidney, I had to go to the hospitals to register according to regulations, but the longer I waited, the more lost I became.

Not only that, I myself have also posted all the information to find someone who is capable of giving me a compatible kidney, but I don't know how lucky I am that some people agreed to donate, but when doing the tests, one person failed, another person had hepatitis B, so until now I am still waiting for luck to come to me in the future?!

Organ brokers are everywhere

According to incomplete statistics from the health sector, currently the whole country has about 6,000 people with chronic kidney failure needing kidney transplants, 1,500 people needing liver transplants, 5,000 people needing cornea transplants, thousands of people needing stem cell transplants... However, the number of people receiving transplants is currently very limited due to a severe shortage of organs, the number of people donating tissues and organs after brain death each year can be counted on the fingers.

Not only one or two cases above, according to the reporter's research, it is known that the demand for human organ transplantation is increasing day by day. However, due to legal regulations, the donor must be related by blood, have good health and be recognized by a doctor, so the actual implementation rate is only a very modest number.

This has led to the emergence of an underground market for human organ trafficking. Talking about this, Can Thanh Van (38 years old, Quoc Oai, Hanoi) said, 3 years ago, I had mild glomerulonephritis.

After the treatment, I felt healthy so I subjectively did not go to the hospital for a check-up. I thought my health was back to normal, but unexpectedly, more than a year ago, my health seriously declined, my body was pale, and symptoms of dizziness, vertigo, and headaches often appeared.

“After a medical examination at a hospital in Hanoi, the doctors concluded that I had stage 4 kidney failure and needed dialysis and urgently needed to find a kidney donor to ensure my health and life. Although my family had many siblings, no one was brave enough to donate a kidney, so I had to ask for help everywhere to find a kidney for myself.

After more than ten days of "shooting" information, finally a person named K. called and introduced that a relative needed to sell a kidney for 200 million VND to pay off debt, if agreed, they would meet to do the urgent procedures. Everything went smoothly right after that and the transplant was successfully performed with K.'s directing talent. At first, I thought K. was a relative of the kidney seller, but after the negotiation process, I found out that K. was one of the sources of information.

However, what I admire about K. is that K. has taken care of all the legal procedures and diplomatic relations and carried them out as promised. Although the price was much higher than the original, my health is now stable. Especially since the transplanted kidney was evaluated by the doctors to be compatible and effective, I am happy," Mr. Van affirmed.

Although she was not able to find a kidney as quickly as Mr. Van, Ms. Nguyen Thi Le Q. (from Ha Long City, Quang Ninh) was equally happy. The thing is, one time her family went to Viet Duc Hospital to register for a kidney transplant.

After completing the procedures, Ms. Q's family went to the front gate of the hospital to drink water and accidentally met a person who introduced a source of kidney donors. If they really needed it, they could give their phone number so they could contact them later. They thought it was just a joke, but unexpectedly, about 2 months later, this person called to inform them that there was a kidney donor, set a meeting place to come and negotiate and do the procedures for the transplant.

Up to now, everything has gone smoothly and Ms. Q. is also in the process of recovering her health. Talking about this, Ms. Q. confided: "In life, you never know. When registering according to regulations, no one calls, but in the market, everything is available. As long as both parties agree to buy and sell, everything can be handled reasonably and as desired?!".

Sell ​​your life for your family to change their life?!

The news that a rich man, the owner of a large private economic group in our country, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a "broker" to find someone whose liver was compatible with his for a liver transplant shocked society even more when it was revealed that the rich man had bought the life of this young man by wanting two livers to replace his own. A large sum of money was offered, worth billions of dong, in exchange.

This poor young man agreed to sacrifice his life so that his family could change their lives. This news did not surprise people as much as the fact that, a few years after the liver transplant, this rich man also died of liver disease, but the information revealed to the public was that he died of a stroke. This shows that in our country, there exists an underground market for human organs with all the activities from brokerage, buying and selling, exchanging, to even human lives, and every exchange is tinged with money.

According to Vietnam.net